REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE

www.mod.gov.rs

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE

Material Resources Sector

Defensive Technologies Department

Military Technical Institute

www.vti.mod.gov.rs

Technical, technological and Application limitations
of the Electro-optical surveillance systems

Dragana Perić

Vlatacom Institute, Belgrade, dragana.peric@vlatacom.com

branko livada

Vlatacom Institute, Belgrade, branko.livada@vlatacom.com

Abstract: Current advances in imaging sensors technology and manufacturing volume cause wider application in the security related multi sensor systems aimed to border, port, important location sites and coastal surveillance. Among these applications long range surveillance systems have the most important role but there are some constraints having influence on their efficacy and cost. Starting from generalized imaging channel and multi sensor system architecture we analyzed key system application limitations, and design constraints as: atmospheric transmission and spectral sensitivity band selection, scene irradiation, lens structure and fundamental resolution limits, imaging sensor pixel size and pixel count, signal conditioning and image processing. In addition, we discussed system mechanical design constraints (pan/tilt field of regard, and search and track velocity), sensor bore sighting techniques and system line of sight stabilization techniques and requirements. It is shown that currently available technological solutions provide wide application but still cannot to override all constraints. During system requirements definition one need to take care about these constraints otherwise system will not satisfy all expectations or will be overdesigned and extremely expensive.

Keywords: Imaging sensors, Surveillance systems, electro-optical systems, pixel size, stabilization.